It is the feudal era of Japan, a blood-soaked time where samurai and ninja ply the craft of death. All this bloodshed causes the spirits of darkness, the Yoma, to gain strength. In this setting Hikage is searching for his long lost friend Marou, to find out why Marou tried to kill him. While searching around for Marou, Hikage stumbles upon an odd village full of friendly people and beautiful albeit scarred woman named Aya. Unbeknownst to him the village is a figurative and literal spider web. The village also contains a secret to what has happened to Marou. In the second half of the show It is two years later and Hikage is still searching for Marou but this time he is joined by a ninja also with the name Aya.

Given a name like Blood Reign, this two part Oav is a slaughterfest, with a death match with some demon occurring every ten minutes or so, if not more often. Blood Reign also tries to raise some philosophical questions, but in a scattershot way that doesn’t allow those questions to be explored in detail. Overall Blood Reign reminds me of Ninja scroll but not quite the movie Ninja Scroll was.

Blood Reign was made in 1989 and the animation clearly shows that it a fairly old piece. While it is old the artwork rather detailed, being one of the better, if not spectacular, pieces of non computer animation. The big technical highlight is the song played at the beginning of the show and a couple of other times. The song is haunting and exemplifies the theme of the show.

Blood Reign is a worthwhile, if disposable Oav. There are many forgettable Oavs out there just like this one. While it is nothing that I would tell you to run out and buy right away, there are many opportunities for the enterprising Otaku to get their hands on this title. I give Blood Reign a rating of good.